Copyright: Please register your copy of Font Monster


Index
	v3.1 / 6 June 1993   Program and documentation written by Steven Fox. Published and copyright © 1992-1993 by: Leaping Lizards, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

This program is shareware, it is not free. Please register today.

Using Font Monster

What Font Monster does

Installing Font Monster

What's new in v3.1

Using font groups without Font Monster

Registering Font Monster


Whats new In v3.1
What's new in v3.1

Printing functions have been added, giving you the chance to make printouts of all the characters in a font, or make a catalog of all your installed fonts.

A couple new view features have been added, KEEP lets you compare two or more fonts side-by-side, GRID displays all the characters in a font.

Font groups have been enhanced by allowing you to link a font group to another font group, or install TrueType fonts for only the current session.

Multi-media sound effects have been added to most buttons and message boxes.

Improved on-line help, featuring "segmented-hyper-graphics". Help also now includes the ability to launch programs and even play Font Monster sounds.


Release notes v1.0: December 1, 1992

In an effort to get this utility finished and distributed as quickly as possible, the file FMONSTER.TXT, will serve as the documentation as well as the HELP file.


Release notes v2.0: March 1, 1993

(TTF) Fixed bug in "SmartLink" which turned off "Regular" style if styles other than Italic or Bold were selected, and the opposite.

(TTF) Fixed bug so that all tables are always saved on 4-byte offsets.

(PFM) Fixed bug which caused the Type1 form to be hidden if Font Monster was associated with the "PFM" extension and started by double clicking on a .PFM font with File Manager.

(PFM) Fixed bug which tried to use TTF font name instead of PFM font name, in the dialog box which asks if you want to save changes. Whoops!

(TTF) Added a whole bunch of new font parameters to edit, for what it's worth. Mostly EmUnit related stuff from the "OS/2" table. Also some stuff from the "post" table.

(TTF) Changed most radio buttons to drop-down menus to conserve space. This also relieved Font Monster of an annoying bug in VB with redrawing the buttons.

(TTF) Brought items which I thought would be most important, or at least more interesting, to the main form. Bumped less important stuff to the second form.

(TTF) Added code which appropriately sets the Monospaced flag in the "post" table.

(ALL) Added configuration dialog box.

(ALL) Added code for registering the program, and writing FMONSTER.INI file. FMONSTER.INI file is enabled only for registered users.

(ALL) Removed Common Dialogs and replaced them with custom dialogs which preview font names. This also means CMDIALOG.VBX is not needed anymore.

(TTF) Added code for computing correct checksums for each font table, and the overall checksum in the "head" table, in an attempt to make Font Monster conform to the TrueType specification. This was a real pain because Visual Basic lacks UNSIGNED LONG integers, which is what is required to compute the checksums, and the fact that each LONG had to translated from Big Endian byte ordering, and eventually the checksum had be written back as Big Endian. Subsequently, since the process of converting and computing the checksums takes some time, even on fast computers, and since correct checksums are not actually required by Windows 3.1 or System 7, I made it an option which can be enabled/disabled.

(ALL) Recompiled and optimized code for Visual Basic 2.0. There will not be a VB1.0 compatible version. Switching to VB2.0 meant I no longer need to include the INSTSCRL.VBX file. Despite the optimization, the EXE file size has grown considerably due to the addition of new subs.

(TTF) Added option for installing .TTF files to SYSTEM directory, just like what Control Panel does.

(TTF) Fixed bug which didn't delete WIN.INI TrueType entries if they had previously been installed in the SYSTEM directory.

(TTF) Found bug in fonts converted by FontMonger 1.0 where PANOSE(Weight) byte is set incorrectly. Font Monster will now deal with it by simply leaving the field blank. If unchanged by user, the buggy byte gets written back to the font as 0. The bug seems to have no effect on the font though.

(TTF) Possibly cured a troublesome bug. Font Monster v1.0 would occasionally not allow a user to open a font, for no apparent reason. A work-around was suggested in Font Monster v1.0; open another font, then try to open the one you want again. This bug occurred whether DOS's SHARE.EXE was installed or not. In this version I've added the keyword "Shared" to all file open statements which seems to have solved the problem. Probably causes others, but so far so good.

(ALL) Fixed bug which had allowed the program to be closed by Program Manager without first asking to save changes. Now any attempt to close Font Monster when a loaded font's data has changed will return a "Save Changes" dialog box.

(TTF) Changed terminology for the Weight Class. It now corresponds with the Microsoft Access weight terminology. Hopefully this will prove to be a standard. Exception: "Regular" was not changed to "Normal", as it's called in Access. Perhaps Microsoft thought "Normal" would be easier to understand than "Regular", but the TrueType spec. always calls it "Regular", in fact it requires it. Saying "Normal" in the Weight menu but "Regular" everywhere else would cause confusion, so I'm gonna leave it this way until convinced otherwise.

(TTF) Added WeightClass to "SmartLink". Selecting a weight from the Weight Class drop-down list box will also insert the text in the STYLE string data box. This was done in hopes that future applications will begin to support the additional weight variations, such as Microsoft Access.

(PFM) Fixed bug reading the Copyright string data of some fonts. This was due to the fact that at the time of Font Monster v1.0's release I had no documentation whatsoever about Type1 font files and had to reverse engineer the PFM. Actually, I still don't have any documentation.

(ALL) Modified the view window so that the control box can be moved, or temporarily removed, by the user. Also made the view window move to the back if it's maximized when the exit button is pressed, instead of being hidden.

(GROUP) Added the font group code.

(ALL) Improved the appearance of the button bar on all forms. Changed the icons on some buttons.

(ALL) Rewrote documentation. Made real Windows Help file.

(GROUP) After release of the v1.99¼ beta, made changes to greatly improve the speed of Type1 installation from a font group. Also fixed a number of bugs reported by beta testers, and added most of their suggestions. Big thanks to Eric Luijer, Carlos McEvilly, and James Thomas in Taipei for beta testing.


Release notes v2.0a: March 3, 1993

Concentrating on the font group feature caused me to overlook a few quirks in other parts of the program. Fortunately, nothing major, but perhaps I should have named it "v2.04c"!

Some buttons will randomly stop responding to clicks. Check out Known bugs for details.

The "Delete font" button on the main TrueType window becomes permanently disabled after deleting a font, however, the View window's "Delete font" button works. This was simply a bug in the code.

Fixed a weird bug where Font Monster created "ghost" 0-byte files in other directories, when trying to extract the name of a font, which, by the way, it would fail to do. This only would occur if a font was "Opened", then the font group function was used and the path was changed, then returning to the font edit window and opening another font.

Removed a bogus line in the code which made it impossible to scan through the files in a directory list box using the cursor up and down keys.

Fixed bug which wouldn't allow you to save an unnamed font group while quitting Font Monster.

Accidentally found an obscure bug which caused the "MORE" window to remain on the screen while editing a Type1 font.

Changed several of the DDE commands in a futile effort to improve DDE communication with Program Manager. It's still buggy. The only change worth mentioning is Font Monster will now create the FMONSTER.GRP file specifically in the WINDOWS directory, instead of the default directory.

Lowered the 3D height of all buttons just for the hell of it.

Added a switch to turn ATM on or off before restarting the system.

Last, but not least, the README.1ST file claimed registration was only $5, a sloppy cut-and-paste from the "Ouija For Windows" README.1ST file. I supposes this proves I shouldn't try to work on two projects simultaneously.


Release notes v3.0: May, 1993
Release notes v3.0: May'ish, 1993

Actually this was a beta of what became v3.1. I messed up and forgot to put the word "BETA" in the FMONSTER.EXE and it subsequently got downloaded from a local BBS to points unknown. So to avoid confusion, the released version became v3.1 ( it DOES have a nice familiar ring to it too).


Release notes v3.1: June 1, 1993
Release notes v3.1: June 6, 1993

Did some minor redesigning of all the windows. Mostly in an effort to keep a more uniform appearance among all the windows and buttons. Most noticeable are the buttons -- smaller still. At 1024x768, these buttons are just about as small as they can get.

Added a single character entry window on the View window's movable control panel which allows you to directly enter a character for display. Also made the panel slightly smaller by overlapping the "TEXT" and "CHAR" controls.

Added multimedia sound effects to nearly every button as well as startup and shut down. Attached sounds can be added and changed with Windows' Control Panel. I made an optional sound kit which will do all the dirty work of initially writing to the WIN.INI, and it includes some nifty samples from James Brown, StarTrek, old commercials, and cartoons.

Added "KEEP" which creates a small "always on top" window of the currently viewed font. Useful for comparing similar fonts.

Added "GRID" which is in fact not a grid but a table of all the characters in the currently viewed font. It will automatically resize itself if the window size changes.

Changed the font "GROUP" function to use drag and drop exclusively. Removed the "<-ADD" and "REMOVE" buttons. Initially tried to implement drag and drop like File Manager or Norton Desktop but VB can't seem to do it 100% accurately. The best way seems to be to make a drag occur when the right mouse button is pressed.

After several user requests, I added some print functions. In this version they're a little bare bones, but they'll do for now. Still, they offer some distinct advantages over other font print utilities. It's paper size independent -- whatever paper size you have in your printer, and whatever orientation, Font Monster will scale it's graphics accordingly. Not everybody uses US LETTER "8 1/2 x 11" paper you know! The user can easily stop a Font Monster print job -- while some other VB font print utilities claim you can't stop printing, I don't see what the problem is, although the stop button does take a few seconds to react at times. Additionally, I added a feature for pausing between pages, because there definitely does appear to be a problem with VB printing with a lot of fonts where the printer just says "Enough already!" and bails out. Pausing lets you pace your printer. Finally, you can optionally print out all styles separately, or just the Regular style of each font. Additional note: the "PRINT" functions have managed to increase the size of the FMONSTER.EXE considerably, bummer.

Added a flashing neon sign "-----Unregistered-----" to the title bar of all top level Font Monster windows. Registering will turn off the sign! I hate nag screens, so this seems to be a relatively non-obtrusive alternative to that. In addition, whenever a print job is started, a simple registration form will come out first if the program is unregistered. You could argue that this is not "green" and wastes paper, but remember, it's you who is helping clear-cut yet another rain forest by using an unregistered program.

Following a user request, I added a font group linking function.

Added a permanent or temporary TrueType install option to font groups.

Redesigned and re-edited the help file, added "segmented-hyper-graphics" for easier navigating. It more than doubled in size!

Added option to FMONSTER.INI to prevent the automatic associating of .TTF and .PFM files to Font Monster, if desired.


Program Manager vs. Norton Desktop

If you are using Norton Desktop v2.0 instead of Program Manager you will have no problem using Font Monster v3.1. Any references to Program Manager or File Manager in this documentation also apply to the Norton Desktop.

A couple minor bugs have been found when creating font group icons with Norton Desktop. Check out Known bugs for details.


Upgrading from Font Monster v1.0

Delete the FMONSTER.TXT file. Also delete INSTSCRL.VBX, CMDIALOG.VBX, and VBRUN100.DLL, unless other Visual Basic programs you are using require them. Copy the new FMONSTER.EXE over the old one, and copy the new files, FMONSTER.HLP, and FMHELPER.DLL, to the same directory. I recommend replacing the THREED.VBX as well. It's a newer version than with one supplied with earlier versions of Font Monster, however, it's probably still buggy.


Upgrading from Font Monster v2.0/v2.0a

Copy the new FMONSTER.EXE and FMONSTER.HLP over the old ones, and copy the new file, FMHELPER.DLL, to the same directory. I recommend replacing the THREED.VBX as well. It's a newer version than with one supplied with earlier versions of Font Monster, however, it's probably still buggy.


Installing Font Monster v3.1

Font Monster v3.1 requires Windows 3.1. It will not run in Windows 3.0 or OS/2 2.0. Beta testers report that Font Monster works fine in the recent beta WINOS/2 v2.1. If you own Adobe Type Manager (ATM), Font Monster will automatically detect it and act accordingly, but Font Monster will work fine without ATM otherwise. It is recommended that you always have TrueType fonts enabled, do so from Windows' Control Panel.

The first time you run Font Monster it will tell Windows to associate Font Monster with the file extensions .PFM, .TTF, and .FM! by automatically editing the WIN.INI file. This will enable you to click on any file ending with these extensions, using File Manager, and Font Monster will start up and present that font's data on screen right away. Files with the .FM! extension are not fonts, they are Font Monster's font groups which must be kept in the same directory as the FMONSTER.EXE file.

FMONSTER.EXE

The main program. Copy this to wherever you like. You can assign it an icon in Program Manager using the usual procedure.

FMONSTER.HLP

This help file. Make sure this is located in the same directory as FMONSTER.EXE.

FMHELPER.DLL

Contains some C language code and resources needed by the main program. Make sure this is located in the same directory as FMONSTER.EXE.

FILE_ID.DIZ

This is only used by some BBSs to describe Font Monster. You don't need this file installed on your hard disk, it can be safely deleted.

README.TXT

This text file contains a basic description about Font Monster and how to install it on your hard disk. Since you are reading this help file now you can safely delete the file.

The following files must be installed in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory:

THREED.VBX

An additional Visual Basic file needed by Font Monster v3.1. This file manages all the nifty looking 3D effects, and it also gobbles up a big chunk of your system resources while Font Monster is running.

VBRUN200.DLL

The Visual Basic 2.0 run-time library, not included in the Font Monster .ZIP archive. You may already have it if you have other Visual Basic 2.0 programs. It is available for free on most BBSs, or from wherever you got FMONST2A.ZIP from.

Moving Font Monster to another directory

The next time it starts, Font Monster will detect if it has been moved and automatically re-associate itself to its new location. Remember to move FMONSTER.HLP, FMHELPER.DLL, and all the .FM! files as well.


What Font Monster does for you

Font Monster is a multi-purpose font utility. It's ultimate goal is to be an all in one monster of a utility for font fanatics. It's primary intention is to cover ground that other utilities (shareware and commercial) missed out on, or didn't implement very well.

Font Monster allows you to edit TrueType and Type1 font data. Not the glyphs and stuff, but all the stuff which Windows uses to recognize a font, like the name, the weight, the style, etc., plus lots of esoteric stuff that you probably will never need to touch.

Font Monster lets you preview TrueType and Type1 fonts before they are installed. If you decide to install a font you are previewing you can also install it with Font Monster, or later un-install it, or even delete the font file from your disk.

Font Monster manages your INI files. When you install or uninstall a Type1 font, Font Monster automatically makes all the necessary changes in your ATM.INI file and your WIN.INI file. When you install or uninstall a TrueType font, Font Monster automatically changes your WIN.INI file.

Font Monster manages your font files. When you install, uninstall, and delete fonts, Font Monster will take care of all the dirty work.

Font Monster can create font groups. These are special macro files containing a list of fonts to install. Activating one of these font groups will optionally uninstall the currently installed fonts, then install the set of fonts listed in the group. You can create as many of these font groups as you like, for all your various font situations. Font groups can even be saved as an icon in Program Manager and can be activated simply by clicking on the icon, thus eliminating the need to start up Font Monster each time you want to change fonts groups.

Font Monster prints font samples and entire font catalogs. This can be extremely useful for finding a particular font, or to see how a font looks when printed. It's also useful for finding a particular character in a dingbat font.

What Font Monster does not do

Some examples for using Font Monster


What Font Monster does not do

Font Monster does not do everything. Sometimes this is for the better, sometimes not:

Since TrueType and Type1 (using ATM) are the only real Windows standards, Font Monster won't support other type managers or font types. OS/2 users should note that Font Monster will not edit Type1 .AFM files, the standard format used by OS/2 ATM.

Changes you make to a font using Font Monster WILL NOT IN ANY WAY change the shapes of the characters on screen or as printed. Information such as kerning and hinting is simply copied byte-for-byte from the original font file. To edit the shapes of the characters you will need something like FontMonger, or Fontographer, or AllType.

Font Monster is intended for personal use only. You should not use Font Monster to rename someone else's fonts and then sell them as your own, this is illegal. But if you do so, be aware that Font Monster does not change all the data in a font which identifies it to its original creator.

Font Monster does not convert fonts from one format to another.


Why should you use Font Monster? Some examples:

Here are some common situations the average font fanatic, such as yourself, might come across:

Let's say you have two different fonts from two different font vendors but both fonts have the same name. Windows will have no way of telling the difference which is which. By renaming one font, Windows (and you) will be able to call up either font.

How about if you copy some fonts over from the Apple Macintosh? The Apple naming scheme can sometimes be quite weird. For example, take the fonts named "Ren&Stimpy Bold 001.002" & "DavysRudeSymbols 10/23/91". Both of these names include some extra information which you don't want and it also confuses Windows when it tries to select the style variations in the font's family. Renaming the fonts will take care of this.

Word For Windows 2.0 tries to be so smart when you want to insert a symbol or a bullet. It will only allow you to select from those fonts in your system which are marked as symbol fonts. What can you do if you want to use a font which isn't a symbol font? Good luck, Word doesn't make it very easy for you. Use Font Monster to mark the font as Symbol and from then on Word will put it in its Symbol menu. This same situation also applies to CorelDRAW! 3.0.

Some fonts, particularly Type1 fonts, are designed with Style formats incompatible with Windows. You may have Regular, Bold, Italic, and BoldItalic versions for a particular family but you may not be able to choose them the usual way, for example Ctrl-B for Bold, Ctrl-I for Italic. Instead you are forced to choose, for example, "Simpsons Bold" or "Simpsons Italic" from your font menu. This is because the styles were all marked as Regular when they were produced. Use Font Monster to set the correct Style and Family Name in each font. Then you can have one menu entry, "Simpsons", and choose the styles in your word processor the usual way.

Many font vendors (and also some applications, CorelDRAW! 3.0 is a good example, which bundle fonts with their programs), for legal reasons change the names of the fonts to something similar, but not the font's real name. Renaming the fonts to their official names can help you better organize your font collection.

Font Monster lets you preview TrueType and Type1 fonts, even if they are not installed yet! If you like what you see you can install the font permanently with Font Monster. If you don't like a font you can also un-install fonts from Windows with Font Monster, and even delete the font files from your hard disk.

If you have a lot of fonts installed at once you probably know how slow Windows takes to startup, and then how slow some applications take to get going, like PAGEMAKER 4.0. Use Font Monster's font group feature to create smaller groups of fonts, which you can install before you open a project that requires specific fonts. For example, you might be laying out a newsletter which requires 14 fonts, and then later you might work on a poster which requires 10 totally different fonts. Simply create two font groups containing the fonts needed for each project. Then as you switch projects, simply click in the corresponding font group's icon to uninstall the unneeded fonts and install the new fonts. You'll notice a remarkable difference in speed when compared to having all your fonts installed at once.

Font Monster now directly supports the additional weight variations implemented in Windows 3.1. At this time, the only other application known to support the additional weights is Microsoft's Access database. Once more applications support the additional weights, you can use Font Monster to rename the weights of your existing TrueType fonts.

You can print a catalog of all your fonts, which will allow you to quickly find a particular font without having to see them on screen.

You can print a page showing all the characters in a font. This is most useful for finding particular symbols in a dingbat font.


Using Font Monster

After the initial title screen you will see this:

TrueType font data window

Type1 font data window


Open a font

The directory list box works just like the familiar Windows common dialog box. It will list only fonts that have the suffix .PFM or .TTF, for Type1 and TrueType fonts respectively.

Shortcut: Ctrl-O

TrueType font data window

Type1 font data window


If a filename is clicked once with the mouse, the font type and actual name will appear here. This function is disabled when saving a font.


Double-clicking, or pressing the OK button, will open the selected font.


The current directory.


The current drive.


Save changes to a font

If you have made any changes to the font data you can save it either as an entirely new font file, or replace the original font file. Use the dialog box to select the directory and the filename.

Shortcut: Ctrl-S will save changes to the font to the same filename you opened, bypassing the "Save As..." dialog box.

Type1 only:

When saving a Type1 font you are only saving the .PFM file. If there is an accompanying .PFB file, it is not altered or renamed. If saving the .PFM file to a different directory, the .PFB is not copied. Note that Font Monster and Adobe Type Manager expect the filenames of the .PFM and the .PFB files to be the same, and they must reside either in the default ATM font directories or the same directory.

On an average 486-33:

Saving a Type1 font takes less than one second.

Saving a TrueType font takes from 5 to 10 seconds.

Saving a TrueType font with checksums enabled takes 10 to 20 seconds.


Restoring original font data
Undo

Press this button to restore all the original font data. If you have made changes and then saved the changes, this will only recall changes made following the last save.

Shortcut: Ctrl-U


Font view

Allows you to view installed fonts, and preview uninstalled TrueType fonts. Also allows you to install or uninstall fonts, or delete font files from your hard disk.

ATM  users only:

You can not view uninstalled Type1 fonts, or Type1 fonts that you have installed during the current session. You will need to restart Windows before Type1 fonts can be viewed.


Double click here to hide this panel to allow you to get a good look at the font. Press any key to restore it.


Drag here to move this panel around the View window.


Maximize the View window to get a really good look at the font.


Minimize the View window to view windows underneath.


Closes the View window.


Keep
Keep a copy of the current font

For comparing fonts. Creates a small "always on top" window with a copy of the current font and text. Later you can open other fonts and compare them side by side.

Note that creating a Keep window uses enormous amounts of Windows' system resources. Do not create too many, and always close them when they are no longer needed.


This area displays the current font using the custom text or character selected on the controls panel. You can not type directly on here.


Displays the name of the currently opened font. When you see:

"Previewing font:" -- this means the currently opened TrueType font has not been installed.

"Viewing font:" -- this means the currently opened font is already installed.

"This font is not viewable:" -- this means the currently opened Type1 font is not installed, or can not be viewed because it was installed in the current Windows session. You can not preview Type 1 fonts.

"No font is open:" -- this means you are looking at the Window's default font, MS Sans Serif. Font Monster uses this font whenever no font is currently open, or when a font could not be opened due to an error.


Grid
Display grid

Fills the View window with a grid displaying all the characters in the font. You can drag the small controls panel around to see characters hidden underneath it.

The grid is relative to the current size of the View window. To get the largest grid, maximize the View window. The display point size will automatically adjust itself relative to the size of the grid.

Grid uses the font Arial to display the labels in each character cell. If Arial is not found, Font Monster will use the Windows default bitmap font, MS Sans Serif.


Custom text
Display custom text

Press this button to activate the custom text panel. If your copy if Font Monster is not registered, the Custom text will always say "Unregistered copy of Font Monster v3.1", but you can change it by simply typing something else in. The font you are currently viewing will be displayed using the text you type in here.

Note that this button toggles it's name between "CHAR" and "TEXT", and that the single character selection panel and the custom text panel replace one another depending on the state of this button.

For registered users only:

If you have selected Save configuration on exit whatever custom text you type here will be recalled the next time you use Font Monster.


Display single character

When viewing a font you can view single characters by sliding the Character slider between 32 and 255.

Note that this button toggles it's name between "CHAR" and "TEXT", and that the single character selection panel and the custom text panel replace one another depending on the state of this button.

For registered users only:

If you have selected Save configuration on exit your selected character will be recalled the next time you use Font Monster.


Single character entry

Click you mouse inside this small preview box and directly type in a character, or use the standard Windows Alt+0xxx technique.

For registered users only:

If you have selected Save configuration on exit your selected character will be recalled the next time you use Font Monster.


Font size

You can select the displayed size of the font you are viewing by moving this slider. The range is from 8 to 720 points.

For registered users only:

If you have selected Save configuration on exit the current size will be recalled the next time you use Font Monster.


Exit view window
Exit

If the View window is maximized, this will send the View window to the back before returning you to the previous font edit window. Otherwise, the View window will be closed.


Font groups

Font groups are macros which allow you to automatically install and uninstall fonts, even without having to start up Font Monster. Create font groups for every situation where you need specific fonts installed.


Create a new font group

Creates a new font group. Note that when the font group window is first displayed, a new, empty, font group is automatically created.


Save changes to a font group

You must save changes before you can activate a font group. Font groups are always stored in the same directory as the FMONSTER.EXE file. Their file extension is .FM!. Their format is similar to the WIN.INI file, and they can be examined with a text editor, although Font Monster is capable of managing these files automatically.


This closes the font group window and returns you to the previous font window.


Current group name

To select an already saved font group, click on the down-arrow and a drop-down list will appear from which you can select an existing font group.

A group name can be up to 64 characters long. When you add the group to Program Manager, this name will appear under the icon. Note that the first 8 letters of a group name also serve as its DOS filename. Therefore, you should avoid naming font groups with exactly the same first 8 characters.


Add or remove selected fonts to the current group
How to add or remove fonts from a group

Select fonts in the list using the standard Windows method of using the left mouse button in conjunction with the SHIFT and CTRL keys.

You move the selected fonts to the other list by holding down the RIGHT mouse button and dragging to the other list.

When a font is added to a group, it is removed from the available fonts list. You can not add a font to a group more than once. This is why the values preceding "Available fonts" and "Number of fonts found" may differ.

When a font is removed from a group, it may or may not be added to the available fonts list. This depends on whether the removed font is kept in the currently selected directory.

Shortcut: Double click on any single font name in a list to move it to the other list.


Activate Group
Font group installation status

If a group fails to install a font (because it has been deleted, or moved, or renamed), or if the font is already installed, you will not see any error messages. This is done in an effort to keep user interaction to a bare minimum.

TrueType only:

Note that Windows' Control Panel normally copies fonts to your WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory, Font Monster groups do not. Wherever the font was kept at the time it was added to a group is where Font Monster will expect to find it later when it installs it. So don't freak out Windows by trying to install a font stored on a floppy.

Type1 only:

Font Monster automatically detects if Adobe Type Manger (ATM) is installed, and active, and acts accordingly when installing and uninstalling Type1 fonts. Font Monster will automatically install or uninstall the font to every Postscript printer installed on your system. Thus, if you don't use ATM and you have no Postscript printers installed, installing a Type1 font achieves absolutely nothing.

If any Type1 fonts are installed or uninstalled by a  font group, and ATM is active, you will be asked if you want to restart windows.

Unlike ATM, Font Monster can install a Type1 font residing in any directory. Font Monster expects both the .PFM and .PFB files to have the same name, and to reside in the same directory.

But a more likely situation for ATM users is that all their Type1 fonts were copied and separated into different directories by ATM when it originally installed them. Font Monster handles this gracefully by first determining the default directories ATM uses for storing fonts. Then if a user installs a .PFM file residing in ATM's default PFM directory, it will automatically install the corresponding .PFB file in ATM's default PFB directory. That is assuming Autodownload all Type1 has been enabled. Otherwise, only the .PFM file will be installed.

See also:

Using font groups without Font Monster

Tips and shortcuts


At any time, you can press this button to cancel any further installing or uninstalling by the font group.


Delete Group

This will delete the current font group's nnnnnnnn.FM! file from your Font Monster directory.


Add group to Program Manager

This will create an icon in Program Manager which represents your font group. The current group name will also be the name under the icon.

See also:

Using Norton Desktop

Using font groups without Font Monster

Tips and shortcuts


Activate another font group

Allows you to link font groups together. When an activated font group is finished installing, it will activate the font group indicated here. Likewise, if that font group is linked to yet another font group, it will be activated, and so on.

In general, this feature is not needed in normal situations. You can safely leave it set to "[None]".

Note that the options, "Remove all TrueType" and "Remove all Type1", if set in a font group, will not take effect if they are activated as a linked font group.

Type1 only:

The "Autodownload Type1" option for each font group in a linked series can be set differently in each font group. This can be an advantage in some situations where you can set up fonts in one group to be downloaded to a Postscript printer, and other groups not.

See also:

Tips and shortcuts


Remove all TrueType fonts

TrueType only:

When the current font group is activated, all TrueType fonts presently installed will be removed from the system. This allows you to create font groups that install either cumulatively or exclusively, and optionally, exclusively from Type1 fonts.


Remove all Type1 fonts

Type1 only:

When the current font group is activated, all Type1 fonts presently installed will be removed from the system. This will require restarting Windows afterward. This function allows you to create font groups that install either cumulatively or exclusively, and optionally, exclusively from TrueType fonts.


Autodownload all Type1 fonts

Type1 only:

This option will add the .PFB file to any Postscript printer entries in the WIN.INI file. This allows Windows to download the font as a soft font while printing. For example the following example does not autodownload the font:

softfont1=d:\win31\pfm\davyscat.pfm

The following example autodownloads the same font:

softfont1=d:\win31\pfm\davyscat.pfm,d:\win31\pfb\davyscat.pfb


TrueType as permanent

TrueType only:

You can create a font group whose fonts are active only during the current Windows session. The next time you start Windows, those particular fonts would not be active. The default setting, however, is "permanent", which installs fonts for the current session as well as later sessions.


View fonts in the list as their actual font name.


View fonts in the list as their file name.


View fonts in the list as their path name.


Displays the progress as Font Monster extracts the names of all the fonts in the currently selected directory.


Restart Windows

Return to current Windows session

Options for users of Adobe Type Manager (ATM) only.


ATM users only:

If you activated a font group which either installed or uninstalled Type1 fonts, or if you installed or uninstalled Type1 fonts from the view window, you will need to Restart Windows before the changes can take effect.


ATM users only:

You have the option of not restarting Windows right away by pressing this button. You may want to do so if you plan to install or uninstall more Type1 fonts right away. Font Monster will remind you once again to Restart Windows before you exit the program.


ATM users only:

Gives you the option of switching Adobe Type Manager (ATM) on or off before restarting Windows.


Using font groups without Font Monster

After you have created and saved a font group, and added it to Program Manager, it's ready to be activated at any time simply by double-clicking on it's icon. A font group is essentially a macro, and it loads in only a small portion of Font Monster. It gets to work pretty quickly, and when it's finished it automatically quits Font Monster. The only interaction on your part will be if Type1 fonts were installed or uninstalled by the font group. Then the you must press a button to either restart Windows or return to the current session.

See also:

Tips and shortcuts

Activate Group


Press this to confirm your selection.


Press this to cancel your selection, and not keep any changes made.


Font Monster settings

This panel controls how Font Monster behaves. The registered version of Font Monster will allow you to save these settings from session to session, otherwise you will may need to change the settings each time you start Font Monster. Yet another good reason for registering today.

	= YES  = NO


SmartLink

For TrueType only:

Enabling this allows you to link any changes you make in one field to other appropriate fields. For example, clicking on the Bold, Actual Style will automatically enter the word "Bold" in the Style field. Likewise, typing in a Family Name will change the Windows Name simultaneously.

This is an invaluable feature because the data in the string fields should generally not conflict with one another, or with the settings elsewhere. Yes, there are a few rare exceptions, but unpredictable things can happen in your font menus if you're not careful. If you need to work on a "rare exception" font, turn off SmartLink temporarily.

It is highly recommended you turn on "SmartLink" and leave it on, always.


Install TrueType fonts to SYSTEM directory

For TrueType only:

When installing a TrueType font you may wish to copy it to your WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory for whatever reason, as Windows' Control Panel does by default. This will make Font Monster automatically copy the .TTF file to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory when installing. Note that the original .TTF file is not deleted. Also note that uninstalling a font installed in this way doesn't remove the .TTF file from the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. If you wish to do so, use the [image] button to both uninstall and delete the .TTF file.

It is recommended you keep your TrueType fonts in a directory (or directories) other than the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. This feature has been added only for completeness.

Font groups are not affected by this setting, they install TrueType fonts in their current directory only.


Install Type1 fonts as autodownload for PS

For Type1 only:

This option will add the .PFB file to any Postscript printer entries in the WIN.INI file. This allows Windows to download the font as a soft font while printing. For example the following line does not autodownload the font:

softfont1=d:\win31\pfm\alphabet.pfm

The following line will autodownload the same font:

softfont1=d:\win31\pfm\alphabet.pfm,d:\win31\pfb\alphabet.pfb

Font groups are not affected by this setting.


Compute TrueType checksums

For TrueType only:

The TrueType specification requires each internal table to be given a checksum, and then the entire font should be given a sort of master checksum. In reality, neither Windows 3.1 nor Apple System 7 bother to even look at these checksums. You can safely leave this setting turned off, and as a consequence, Font Monster will take a lot less time when saving.

Should there ever be a case in the future when an operating system requires these checksums, you can open and then resave your fonts with this setting turned on to create the correct checksums.


Save settings on exit

For registered users only:

With this button enabled, Font Monster will save settings automatically in a file called FMONSTER.INI in your WINDOWS directory, every time you quit. Settings include the status of all the buttons on the configuration window, the current directory, the custom text,  the size, and single character settings on the view window, and the print function settings.


How to enter your registration code
Now that you have paid your twenty bucks, you can register. You only need to do this once. Enter your name and your ID number exactly as written on your registration letter which you received. Press OK and you should see a note thanking you for registering. By the way, thanks again for registering.

Registering enables the FMONSTER.INI file, allowing you to save your settings.


WHO?
Pressing this button reveals the startup screen and a reminder to register this program if you haven't already. Click on the picture, wait, then click again to return.


HELP
Press this button, or press F1, to get help about the current window.

This help file serves as the only documentation for Font Monster.


Quitting Font Monster
Guess what this button does? If you have modified any opened font's data, Font Monster will ask you if you want to save it first.


Editing TrueType font data
Edit TrueType font data

Some TrueType fonts originally created on the Apple Macintosh do not implement all of the available tables. These tables will be disabled when you open such a font.


Editing Type1 font data
Edit Type1 font data


Family Name (Type1)
Family Name

This is the name which a Type1 font presents in your Windows font menus. It is essentially the same as the Family Name for TrueType fonts, and likewise it should remain the same for all Style variations within the same Family.


Family Name
Postscript Name

This is the name a Postscript printer will expect to find in the .PFB font data file. If it does not match you will not be able to print.

It is strongly suggested you do not change this field. It's primary use is to match the name of a Postscript printer's internal ROM font.


Copyright (Type1)
Copyright

Font vendors and designers put their copyright notices in this field. It has no bearing on how the font installs or displays.


Style (Type1)
Style

Type1 fonts can only be one of four styles: Regular, Bold, Italic, or BoldItalic.

Regular style can be chosen by unchecking both Bold and Italic checkboxes.

BoldItalic style can be chosen by checking both Bold and Italic checkboxes.


Proportion (Type1)
Proportion

For some reason nearly all the fonts you will find are marked as Monospaced, even fonts which are proportional. Changing this field to Proportional will probably not affect how the font behaves. But who knows?


Family Type (Type1)
Family Type

This is a sort of general classification your font would belong to. If a font is not installed but needed by a document, Windows will try to substitute a font which matches the same family type. Note that the style terminology is different than in TrueType fonts.

Setting this to Symbol, for example, would allow your font to be recognized by Word For Windows 2.0  or CorelDRAW! 3.0 as a symbol font.


Windows Name (TrueType)
Windows Name

This is what Windows uses to list the installed fonts in application font menus. This is really a combination of the Family and the Style. The exception being when a Style is "Regular", then the Windows Name shouldn't include the word "Regular" after the Family. Unpredictable things will happen in your font menus otherwise. Don't try it.

See also:

"SmartLink"


Family (TrueType)
Family

This is a common name given to a family of fonts. For example, Arial comes in four variations, or Styles, and they all have the same Family; Arial. Windows expects the Family to be the same as the Family depicted in the Windows Name field. Otherwise a font may not display correctly, if at all.

See also:

"SmartLink"


Style (TrueType)
Style

Examples of Style are "Bold", "Bold Italic", "Italic", "Oblique", "Regular". Windows expects the Style to follow the Family in the Windows Name field, the exception being when a font Style is "Regular", in which case the Family and the Windows Name should be the same. By entering the word "Bold" in the Style field, it doesn't mean the font will be recognized as Bold by your applications. That's set by Actual Style, another control which is quite independent of the string data.

See also:

"SmartLink"


Copyright (TrueType)
Copyright

Font vendors put their copyright notices in this field. It has no bearing on how the font installs or displays.

If this field does not already exist in the font, you will see the words "Font Monster v3.1" in red.


Unique ID (TrueType)
Unique ID

This should contain a number or string which is different than any other font in your system.

If this field does not already exist in the font, you will see the words "Font Monster v3.1" in red.


Version (TrueType)
Version

The version field identifies the font's release and version information from the vendor. Apparently, some SETUP.EXE programs will access the Version field to automatically install updates of your fonts. This field has no bearing on how the font installs or displays.

If this field does not already exist in the font, you will see the words "Font Monster v3.1" in red.


Postscript Name (TrueType)
Postscript Name

This is a unique name a Postscript printer will use to identify the font. It does not have to be the same as the Windows Name or Family name, but has no bearing on how the font displays or prints otherwise.

If this field does not already exist in the font, you will see the words "Font Monster v3.1" in red.


Trademark (TrueType)
Trademark

Some font vendors put their font name trademark notices in this field. It has no bearing on how the font prints or displays.

If this field does not already exist in the font, you will see the words "Font Monster v3.1" in red.


Vendor ID (TrueType)
Vendor ID

This is not the royalty owner of the original artwork, this is the company responsible for the marketing and distribution of the typeface. It is reasonable to assume that there will be 6 vendors of ITC Zapf Dingbats for use on desktop platforms in the near future (if not already).  It is also likely that the vendors will have other inherent benefits in their fonts (more kern pairs, unregularized data, hand hinted, etc.). This identifier will allow for the correct vendors type to be used over another, possibly inferior, font file. These id's are assigned by Microsoft.


Actual Style (TrueType)
Actual Style

This identifies the font's actual style. This is different than the Style string data. Windows applications use the Actual Style to determine what kind of font this is. Note that only Regular, Bold, Italic, & BoldItalic are currently valid in Windows 3.1. You can set the other styles if you want, but Windows 3.1 will ignore them.

Choosing both Bold and Italic will identify a font as BoldItalic.

If a font is Regular, choosing any other style will turn off the Regular style checkbox. Likewise, choosing the Regular checkbox will turn off all other checkboxes.

It is possible to have all the Actual Style checkboxes unchecked if a font does not fit any specific style classification.

If your font is originally from an Apple Macintosh you may find that some of the Style selections have been dimmed. That's because the Mac recognizes only the Bold & Italic bits, and nothing else. If the other choices are dimmed then the extra information that Windows uses was not included in the font. If this is the case then most of the other fields will also be dimmed.

To make an Apple Macintosh font Regular style, uncheck both Bold and Italic checkboxes

See also:

"SmartLink"


Protection (TrueType)
Protection

None

Fonts that are not licensed may be embedded within a document and shipped freely to other users. When that font is unbundled from the document and installed on the target machine, the user of that machine acquires the identical rights, obligations and licenses for that font. This font is also subject to an end-user license agreement, copyright, design patent, and/or trademark.

Licensed

Fonts that are licensed are also subject to a license agreement and must not be modified, embedded or exchanged in any manner without first obtaining permission of the legal owner.

Read-only

Fonts that are read-only indicate that they may be embedded within documents but cannot be installed permanently on the target machine. Windows 3.1 provides API support for read-only embedding. Applications that embed fonts may not embed fonts which are not licensed and must de-install any read-only embedded fonts when the document that uses the fonts is closed. Any document which includes a read-only embedded font must not allow the user to edit the document; it can only be viewed and/or printed.

The fact is, if you own Font Monster, none of these settings make a bit of difference!


Italic Angle (TrueType)
Italic Angle

The Italic Angle goes in counter-clockwise degrees from the vertical. Zero for upright text, negative for text that leans to the right (forward).


Family Type (TrueType)
Family Type

This is a sort of general classification which a font belongs to. If a font is not installed but needed by a document, Windows will first try to substitute a font which matches the same family type. Note that the style terminology is different than in Type1 fonts.

Setting this to Symbol, for example, would allow your font to be recognized by Word For Windows 2.0  or CorelDRAW! 3.0 as a symbol font.

See also:

PANOSE


Proportion (TrueType)
Proportion

The relative spacing of the characters in the font. This setting is particularly useful for marking a font as Monospaced.

See also:

PANOSE


Weight Class (TrueType)
Weight Class

Indicates the visual weight (degree of blackness or thickness of strokes) of the characters in the font. Note that these weights are directly supported by Windows, but to date, only one application, besides Font Monster, is known to support them, Microsoft's Access database. Until these additional weights are more greatly supported, you probably should stick to the standard Regular and Bold weight names. Boring huh?

See also:

"SmartLink"


Width Class (TrueType)
Width Class

Indicates a relative change from the normal aspect ratio (width to height ratio) as specified by a font designer for the glyphs in a font.


Installing or uninstalling a font
Install or uninstall a font

If the caption reads:

"Install font", clicking on this will install a font permanently in your system.

"Uninstall font", clicking on this will remove the font from Windows. It will not be deleted from your hard disk, but that can be done with the Delete font button.

"(Can't install)", then no font is currently open, either because one has not been opened yet (as might occur when you first start the program), or an error occurred when attempting to open a font.

TrueType only:

Note that Windows' Control Panel normally copies fonts to your WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory, Font Monster, by default, does not. You can make Font Monster install fonts in the WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory by changing the Font Monster configuration. Otherwise, wherever the font was kept at the time it was installed is where Windows will expect to find it later. So don't freak out Windows by installing a font stored on a floppy.

Type1 only:

Font Monster automatically detects if Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is installed and acts accordingly when installing and uninstalling Type1 fonts. Font Monster will automatically install or uninstall the font to every Postscript printer installed on your system. Thus, if you don't use ATM and you have no Postscript printers installed, installing a Type1 font with Font Monster will do absolutely nothing.

Unlike ATM, Font Monster can install a Type1 font residing in any directory. Font Monster expects both of the font's .PFM and .PFB files to have the same name, and to reside in the same directory.

But a more likely situation for ATM users is that all their Type1 fonts were copied and separated into different directories by ATM when it originally installed them. Font Monster handles this gracefully by first determining the default directories ATM uses for storing fonts. Then if a user installs a .PFM file residing in ATM's default PFM directory, it will automatically install the corresponding .PFB file in ATM's default PFB directory. That is assuming Install Type1 fonts as autodownload for PS has been enabled. Otherwise, only the .PFM file will be installed.

See also:

Restart Windows


Deleting a font file
Delete a font file

When you delete a font, it is automatically uninstalled. You don't need to uninstall it first. Remember, deleting a font actually deletes the font file(s) from your hard disk. If you need to recover an accidentally deleted font, either use a Windows undelete utility, or exit Windows immediately and use the DOS UNDELETE command, to try to recover the missing files.

TrueType only:

Clicking on this button will delete the font's .TTF file and its corresponding .FOT (if it's already installed) from your hard disk. You will be prompted whether you really want to do so or not first. This is especially useful if you are previewing a number of new fonts, you can immediately delete them if they are duplicates or useless.

Type1 only:

When you delete a Type1 font, Font Monster will attempt to delete both the .PFM and the .PFB files. It will first prompt you whether you wish do to so or not.


Additional editable font data
Additional editable TrueType font data

This additional font information is available for editing but in almost all cases it should not be changed. Only those knowledgeable about this kind of stuff should mess with this. If you are interested to know more, you can obtain a copy of the TrueType specification, available from Microsoft.


PANOSE (TrueType)
PANOSE

The PANOSE definition contains ten digits each of which currently describes up to sixteen variations. Windows 3.1 uses Family Type, Serif Style and Proportion in the font mapper to determine family type.  It also uses Proportion to determine if the font is monospaced.


Family Class (TrueType)
Family Class & Family Subclass

The Family Class and Family Subclass are registered values assigned by IBM to each font family.  This parameter is intended for use in selecting an alternate font when the requested font is not available. The Family Class is the most general and the family Subclass is the most specific. These values classify a font design as to its appearance, but do not identify the specific font family, typeface variation, designer, supplier, size, or metric table differences.  It should be noted that some font designs may be classified equally well into more than Family Class or Subclass. Such designs should be matched to a classification for which substitution of another font design from the same class or subclass would generally result in a similar appearance of the presented document.


Em units (TrueType)
Em unit related data

Em units compose an imaginary square in which each character resides. The greater the number of Em units, the higher the potential resolution of a font. The Em Units value itself should never be changed, but related data can be tweaked by advanced users. The valid range for Em units is from 16 to 16384.


Em percentage (TrueType)
Em percentage

This displays the current proportion of the selected item in relation to the number of EM units. This value is read-only.


Print
Font print utility

These print routines only recognize currently installed fonts. Use the font group function to install any specific set of fonts before printing them. Click here for more details about printing.


More about printing
More about printing...

Use the right mouse button to drag and drop font names from one list to the other, or to the label and title styles.

You can select more than one style of page to be printed during a single print job. For example, you can make a Character chart, a Sample page, and a Font catalog all at the same time.

All buttons and selections are "live" during printing. For example, if you change the Label font during printing, all subsequent labels will come out in the new font style.

Visual Basic does not allow you to change printers, or printer settings while the program is running. Therefore, you should choose your default printer, paper size, and orientation BEFORE running Font Monster. I agree, this sucks.

It is not advisable to print more than a couple hundred fonts when printing a font catalog (Windows has been known to so completely crash that a reboot is needed). Always try to keep the number of fonts installed at any time to as few as necessary, Windows can only handle up to 253 font families at once.

All printouts automatically scale to your current paper size and orientation. You can use this to your advantage!

Some print functions use default settings which can only be changed by editing the FMONSTER.INI file. Click here for details. However, you can do this only if your copy of Font Monster is registered.

The Sample page function will use custom text if it finds a file called FMONSTER.TXT. Click here for details.


FMONSTER.TXT

If you create a file called FMONSTER.TXT and place it in your FMONSTER.EXE directory, the Sample Page function will use it instead of the built-in default text.

This custom text file can be up to 4096 characters long, and should NOT have any carriage returns and line-feed characters since Font Monster will do the line breaks automatically.


Character chart

Generates a full page chart displaying all the characters in the selected font, plus the keyboard codes for entering in the characters.

See also:

Customizing the FMONSTER.INI


Sample page

Generates a page displaying the selected font in various sizes, and in different forms: as an alphabet, a custom text string, and a paragraph.

See also:

Customizing the FMONSTER.INI

Creating custom paragraph text in FMONSTER.TXT


Font catalog

Generates a catalog of all the selected fonts.

See also:

Customizing the FMONSTER.INI


You can create a catalog ranging from 1 column (full page) to 5 columns per page. Larger numbers of columns may be better suited if your printer driver is setup to print in Landscape mode.


The sample text will be printed in the point size designated here. The range is from 8 points to 72 points.


The title font is the font style which appears at the top of all the printouts. It can either be a selected font or the current font being printed.

If you are an unregistered user, the default font is always the first font in your font list. Registered users can configure Font Monster to save settings between sessions.

See also:

How to select a custom title font


Toggles between the selected font or the current font being printed.


Toggles Bold and Italic styles on or off. Note that this is disabled if you are using the current font as the font style.


The point size of the title font can range from 8  to 72 points.


The label font is generally a small size, and is used as a label indicating font name, point size, or keyboard input method. It can either be a selected font or the current font being printed. It's recommended that you use an easy to read typeface, like Arial, at a small size, like 5 or 6 points.

If you are an unregistered user, the default font is always the first font in your font list. Registered users can configure Font Monster to save settings between sessions.

See also:

How to select a custom label font


The point size of the label font can range from 4 to 24 points.


The custom text is used by the font catalog and the sample page print functions.


Toggles between using the custom text that you have entered, or the name of the current font being printed.


Closes the Font print utility window and returns you to the previous window.


Selected fonts/Available fonts
Selected fonts
Available fonts

Before you can print, you must select the fonts you want to print. The fonts that will be printed are listed in the Selected fonts list.

Select fonts in a list using the standard Windows method of using the left mouse button in conjunction with the Shift and Ctrl keys.

You move the selected fonts to the other list by holding down the RIGHT mouse button and dragging to the other list.

When a font is added to the Selected fonts list, it is removed from the Available fonts list. You can not add a font to the Selected fonts list more than once. This is why the values preceding "installed fonts" and "available fonts" may differ.

Shortcut: Double click on any single font name in a list to move it to the other list.


Selecting a custom title or label font

1.	Click on a font name in either the "Selected fonts" list or the "Available fonts" list.

2.	Use the RIGHT mouse button to drag the font to either the "Title font" or "Label font" area, then release.


Displays a sample of the selected font when it is clicked once in either the Selected fonts list or the Available fonts list. Fonts stored in the printer, and downloadable Type1 fonts (without ATM installed) can not be viewed.


Page pause lets you pause the printing function after each page. This is especially useful if you are printing a large number of sample pages, character charts, etc. because it allows you to let your computer wait until the print que is empty, and thus recover some system resources, before continuing with the print job.

When printing is paused a message box will pop up. Press "OK" to continue printing, press "Cancel" to stop all printing.


Begins the print job. You must first select the page style(s) you want to print, and select the fonts you want to print.


Displays the current printing status.


When enabled, this will allow you to select all style variations of any font; Regular, Bold, Bold Italic, or Italic. When disabled, you can chose only the Regular, or default style, of each font. Selecting this will clear the selected fonts list.


Stops all printing. Any currently printing page is also stopped. Pages which have already been sent to the printer, or which are in the Print Manager que, will not be stopped however.

During printing, if you click this button it may appear to not work. It does work though. Just give Font Monster a second or two to react. However, if the status line says, "Sending to printer, hang on...", this means that Font Monster is currently not in control of the printing process (Visual Basic is), and so the reaction time may take a while.


Sounds

 Sound test...

Font Monster supports Windows 3.1 multimedia sounds. Copy the following lines to the [Sounds] section in your WIN.INI file. Then use Windows' Control Panel to assign sounds to .WAV files already in your system. The Font Monster Multimedia Upgrade Kit includes a collection of interesting and original samples and will also do all the work of modifying your WIN.INI file for you. You can obtain the Font Monster Multimedia Upgrade Kit as freeware, probably from the same place you got Font Monster 3.1.

FMActivate=,Font Monster-Activate group

FMAdd=,Font Monster-Add icon

FMCancel=,Font Monster-Cancel

FMClick=,Font Monster-Click

FMDelete=,Font Monster-Delete

FMDrag=,Font Monster-Drag&Drop

FMExit=,Font Monster-Exit window

FMGrid=,Font Monster-Font grid

FMGroup=,Font Monster-Font groups

FMHelp=,Font Monster-Help

FMInstall=,Font Monster-Install font

FMKeep=,Font Monster-Keep image

FMNew=,Font Monster-New

FMOk=,Font Monster-Ok

FMOpen=,Font Monster-Open font

FMPrint=,Font Monster-Print fonts

FMCnfg=,Font Monster-Program config

FMQuit=,Font Monster-Quit

FMSave=,Font Monster-Save font

FMStart=,Font Monster-Startup

FMStop=,Font Monster-Stop!

FMUndo=,Font Monster-Undo changes

FMUninstall=,Font Monster-Uninstall font

FMView=,Font Monster-View font

FMWho=,Font Monster-Who?


Tips and shortcuts

When editing TrueType data, always enable "SmartLink". This will prevent you from changing names or style settings incorrectly.

Drop any font group icon into your StartUp folder and every time you start windows that font group will take effect.

You can use a previously created font group as a template for a new font group. Simply select the font group, type in a new name, and press the SAVE button. You can then add/delete fonts, change settings, etc., as necessary.

Use the "Activate another font group" feature to link one Type1 font group marked as Autodownload, to a second Type1 font group marked as NOT Autodownload. This will allow you to install fonts, some of which already reside in your Postscript printer's ROM, and some of which must be downloaded as soft fonts, as if they were all in a single group.

If you have a common set of fonts which you use regularly, create a font group containing just those fonts. Then use the "Activate another font group" feature in other groups to ensure all your other font groups keep those fonts installed.

If you own CD-ROMs with collections of fonts, create a font group for each CD-ROM, and then add it to Program Manager. After inserting the CD-ROM, activate it's font group to install the CD-ROM fonts.

Create a font group containing just the standard font families that come with Windows 3.1, Arial, New Times Roman, Courier New, and Wingdings. Uncheck the "Remove all TrueType" and "Remove All Type1" settings, then add the font group to Program Manager. This way you can install those fonts quickly whenever they are needed, such as by this help file, but still retain the fonts you are using presently.

Create a font group containing the same standard fonts as the above tip, but instead, check the "Remove all TrueType", and optionally check "Remove All Type1". You can use this group to quickly reduce all your fonts to the bare minimum.

You can use Windows' File Manager to select fonts. Simply locate the font you want to view or edit, and double click on it. Font Monster will automatically start up and load in the data for that font.


Known bugs

Although this list is rather long, I'm just trying to document every little itty bitty thing I've come across. The fact is, Font Monster is pretty stable. Practically all these bugs are related to Font Monster having trouble interacting with OTHER applications that are not behaving properly.

This probably will never happen to you, but some buttons of the "SSCOMMAND" type have been known to randomly stop responding to clicks. Furthermore, this happens only when running the compiled FMONSTER.EXE file, but never when running from the VB development environment, which makes it difficult for me to catch. After spending several hours trying to work around this, I've come to the conclusion that the THREED.VBX file is the source of this bug. A newer version of this file has been included with Font Monster v3.1 and it APPEARS to behave better than before. Still, if you acquire an updated version of the THREED.VBX, and I wouldn't know how to explain how to find out if your version is a newer one since they all sport different dates, I would suggest you replace the one supplied with Font Monster with the newer one and see if it works/helps. If I obtain a newer version which proves better, I'll release an interim version of Font Monster. By the way, Sheridan Software produced the THREED.VBX, not me. So curse them if your buttons stop working.

The View window sometimes forgets which font it is displaying, particularly at large and small point sizes. It will instead try to display the first font in your font list, usually it starts with the letter "A", like "Arial". Click on the VIEW button again to restore the original font view.

Trying to open defective fonts can sometimes drive Font Monster nuts.

Font Monster uses the standard Private INI API functions for writing the .FM! group files, therefore, two fonts with exactly the same name can only be entered once in a group. Since Windows doesn't support fonts with the same names anyway you can work around this "problem" by renaming the fonts before adding them to a group.

If you are using Norton Desktop v2.0 and you use the font group function to add or remove an icon, and then you exit Font Monster right away, Windows sometimes pops up a dialog box mentioning a DDE problem, usually around 1 minute later. Choosing "Close" gets rid of the dialog box and doesn't seem to cause any further problems. My only guess at solving this is to change the following line in the NDW.INI:

DDEInitiateDelay=750

to something else. However, several tries at this didn't help on my system. Anyone got any ideas?

Also related to Norton Desktop v2.0, the custom icon for font groups do not work. To work around this, Font Monster checks the shell name and if it's not Program Manager it will use the regular Font Monster icon for font groups. You can still force Font Monster to use the custom icon by editing the FMONSTER.INI file.

Adding a font group to Program Manager or Norton Desktop v2.0 on very rare occasions randomly fails, and sometimes it puts the font group in the active folder, rather than the "Font Monster" folder.

Using the Microsoft DDESpy utility reveals some invalid parameter messages related to adding font groups to Program Manager. However, the format of the messages being sent are identical to messages sent by other C language applications. Yet, the commands still work, so it beats me what the heck is going on. Maybe a buggy implementation of DDE in Visual Basic 2.0? Beats me.

Some video drivers may totally freak out Visual Basic and cause Font Monster to display the buttons out of place, and the startup screen may appear really off center, among other things. In fact Font Monster will look pretty bad. I've seen this happen on two systems which both were using a Super VGA resolution with large fonts, instead of the usual small fonts. Font Monster has been optimized for systems using the small fonts simply because it's the more common setup. I tried to optimize for both large and small fonts but had no luck. I don't know if the fault of this bug is due to Visual Basic, the THREED.VBX file (my most likely guess, considering the other problems I'm having with it), or the VGA drivers. If Font Monster looks weird, change to small fonts.

Don't install or remove Postscript printers while Font Monster is running. The reason is Font Monster scans the WIN.INI file for Postscript printers when it starts up. If you must install or remove a Postscript printer, quit Font Monster first. Any changes of the Postscript printers while Font Monster is running may have unpredictable results.

The first 8 letters of a group name also serve as its DOS filename. Therefore you should avoid naming font groups with exactly the same first 8 characters.

If you are previewing a TrueType font when you switch to the font group window, and you subsequently activate a font group which removes all TrueType fonts, when you quit Font Monster, or open another font, you may get a message box claiming that it "Can't remove the previous font because it did not install properly". This happens because Font Monster tried to remove the previewed font from the system but discovered, to it's amazement, that it had already been removed. Simply disregard this error.

You cannot run two copies of Font Monster at one time. Thus, you also cannot activate a font group icon from Program Manager while Font Monster is running.

This is not a bug with Font Monster, but with Windows: Don't try to install too many fonts in your system. Windows is said to support only 253 font families. In addition, adding fonts adds a lot of lines to the WIN.INI file. If you add too many fonts, the WIN.INI will grow so large that it will become inaccessible, causing all sorts of problems for Windows.

A bug in Visual Basic does not allow you to change printers, or printer settings while the program is running. Therefore, you must choose your default printer, paper size, and orientation BEFORE running Font Monster.

Font Monster cannot save Chinese language TrueType fonts after editing. Beats me why, but it just locks up solid. If anyone else besides myself reports having this problem I'll look into it, otherwise, big deal.

If the file ATM.INI is in your WINDOWS directory, but ATM has been removed from your system, Font Monster will still think ATM is installed. Once Adobe supplies me with a correct API spec this bug will be fixed.

The "Use all font styles" setting in the print function does not correctly name fonts in some cases. Fonts named "Oblique", for example, will be named "Italic" instead. While this is not serious, it's worth noting.

Once, after printing a catalog of several hundred fonts, Windows crashed with a very unusual DOS error message claiming there wasn't enough memory to START Windows! I haven't been able to duplicate it, yet.


Shareware registration

Font Monster is distributed as shareware. This gives you the privilege of trying out this program before you pay for it. It doesn't mean it's free. Of course you already know this.

It's only $20 !!!

Registering Font Monster will give you peace of mind, and, it will also entitle you to the special code which will enable the FMONSTER.INI file, turn off that blasted neon sign, and disable the printing of the registration page from the print functions. Your registration code will be valid for ALL subsequent versions of Font Monster. I may experiment with even more aggressive nags and cripples in future versions of Font Monster unless registrations pick up.

Send the money (cash only!) to this address:	Leaping Lizards 4F 189 Tze-Lee Road Chung-Ho City  235 Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Your special code, and the latest news about Font Monster, will be delivered in a perfumed air-mail envelope all the way from Taiwan, with some pretty neat looking Chinese stamps on it! Not bad for twenty bucks, right? Also please mention where you obtained your copy, and the version number. Much appreciated would be comments on things you would like to see added or improved in later versions. You should allow about 3 to 4 weeks for delivery of your special code. If you're in a hurry, also include an e-mail address and I can register you the same day your payment is received.

How to contact the author

How to be the first on your block to receive the next version of Font Monster

Attention Windows shareware authors


Contacting the author
User assistance

By modem:

I can respond to questions asked by non-registered users of Font Monster only by modem. I can be contacted on-line in the public networks RIME Windows (RIME Node: TWWDE) conference, the FIDONET Windows conference,  and the I-Link Desktop Publishing conference. Send the message addressed to Steven Fox. Sometimes the e-mail takes two days to get here, and sometimes it doesn't make it at all, but it's worth a try. The e-mail on I-LINK is particularly spotty out this way, recently, mail comes in twice a month, if we're lucky, and even then only a handful of mail, so avoid I-LINK if possible. Compuserve? In Taiwan? Forget it, I'm not a millionaire.

Perhaps the best and most reliable way to get send a private message quickly, and get a response back just as quick, is via FidoNet/UUCP, my e-mail address is:

steven.fox@f921.n720.z6.fidonet.org

This service is available to nearly all major on-line services around the world, like Compuserve or Internet, as well as many local BBSs.

Those of you with cheap long distance rates are welcome to call the local English language BBS, World Data Exchange (WDE), a PCBoard system, where the latest updates, and betas, of Font Monster will always be posted first: 886-2-935-5783. Login with your real name, and use the password: WDECHINAROC to have instant, free, download access for Font Monster files, plus some limited access to other files and data on the BBS. Check the upload directory for files named FMON*.ZIP. Please leave me mail if you call. WDE is also a useful BBS if you have any interest in Chinese, Taiwan culture, or being an expat in Taiwan.

By fax:

I welcome comments and suggestions by fax. My fax number is: 886-2-729-0863. However, I cannot respond via fax unless you are a registered user, you're offering large amounts of money, or you want to review Font Monster in your magazine.


Distribution and copyright

This program and documentation was written by me, Steven Fox. I am the sole owner of this piece of intellectual copyright and you must abide by all the legal mumbo jumbo that always goes along with such things. Got it?

If this program messes up your system, sue me.

If you want to distribute Font Monster elsewhere, you may do so as long as you distribute the unaltered .ZIP archive file you received. You may charge a fee for such distribution as long as it is less than a couple bucks, and that it is made quite clear before distribution that this software is shareware and that an additional fee is required by the author.


About the Author

Speaking in a third-person tense:

Steven Fox is American, 28. For several years in the mid-80s he wrote utilities, not unlike this one, for his small company in London. In the late-80s he wrote MIDI software, wrote several alternate operating systems for Ensoniq keyboards, and designed sounds, for his music-software company, Leaping Lizards, in Seattle. During this time in Seattle he also worked on the underground live TV program, "The New Spud Goodman Show", as their electronic graphics designer, and he also invented "BLAST!", a digital sampler car horn/car alarm. After a lengthy backpack tour of South-east Asia, he settled in Taipei where he is one of the few people his age who has never taught English there. He's presently working as a freelance computer and electronic publishing consultant for the relatively small foreign business community in Taipei, but he still refuses to wear a tie. He also edits and writes the weekly Computer Talk section for the leading English language daily newspaper in Taiwan, The China News. Presently, he's open to offers of interesting jobs as far away from Europe or the US as he can get, preferably in Asia.

Apart from writing a couple custom voice mail applications in C, there hasn't been much call for programming in Taiwan, the locals can always do it cheaper than him, and well, probably better too. So in an effort to keep his programming skills intact, he bought Visual Basic. Font Monster is the first program he's written with VB, and now that he has VB2.0 he's planning other projects. Smaller though, definitely smaller, Font Monster has really become a monster at using his free time.

How to contact the author


popShareware
Font Monster v3.1 is not free software. You are permitted to evaluate this program for a couple weeks after which you must either discontinue using it, or (preferably) register. There are reports that not registering shareware brings you lots of bad karma. Please feel free to give copies of Font Monster to your friends, if you have any.


popSpecialoffer
If you would like a disk with the next version of Font Monster on it when it is released, send an additional $10 with your registration to cover costs. At least one more major update is scheduled for this year; September 1, 1993. At least one interim update is expected before then, once Visual Basic 3.0 has been released. There will certainly be more updates after September, but no release dates have yet been set.

As an added bonus, your disk will also contain selected shareware releases from Leaping Lizards.

Available now:

StarTrek .WAV files. The classic sound effects from the classic original TV series.

James Brown .WAV files. The classic James Brown grunts and squeals, now for Windows.

Cartoon Sound FX .WAV files. 72 classic cartoon sound effects.

Ouija For Windows. A program for contacting spirits on the other side, using Windows and a mouse. Really.

The Stripper. A small, bare bones, utility for converting Windows' Postscript files so that they can be output from a Mac.


popSharewareAuthors
Special offer:

For other Windows shareware authors only, I will register Font Monster for you for free if you send me a disk with a registered version of your latest program, utility, font, game, or whatever. As long as it's for Windows please, I'm trying to avoid DOS these days. It's next to impossible to find current shareware here in Taiwan. I will also distribute your shareware around Taiwan if you wish. I'm happy to say that I've already had several shareware authors send me their stuff. Keep it coming.


popcash
The government here in Taiwan does not allow an official non-resident, such as myself, to open a bank account, but in addition, local banks always charge a hefty service fee to anyone who wants to cash checks from out of the country, so cashing a $20 check would basically leave me with enough change to buy lunch and catch the bus home.

Due to popular demand, I will now accept currency from any of these countries: US, Japan, France, England, Germany, and Australia. That's it though. You'll have to figure the conversion rate yourself, and please send no less than the equivalent of US$20. Paper money only please, no coins.

I prefer payment in US dollars, if at all possible.

Please send cash only, please. If you send me a check, I'll just have to return it to you.

To date, no major catastrophies have occurred from users sending me cash in the mail. If you are paranoid about such things, you can register or even insure your letter before you send it.


Sound test

Click on the icon to hear the assigned sound. If you hear no sound, either the Font Monster extensions have not been added, or no sound has been assigned, or system sounds are disabled, or you have no sound card, or you have no speakers, or you are deaf.

Start program  Quit program  Open font  Save font  Undo changes  View font  Keep image button  Grid button  CNFG button	Install font  Uninstall font  Ok button  Cancel button  Delete button  Exit button  Drag&Drop  Button click	Print button  Stop button  Font group button  New button  Activate font group  Add font group icon  Help  Who?

 Edit Control Panel sound settings...


FMONSTER.INI

What follows are some settings which can be customized by using Notepad to edit the FMONSTER.INI file. Only these settings can not be changed by Font Monster, however, all other settings can be changed from within Font Monster, assuming you have registered and configured it to save settings on exit.

Do not edit the FMONSTER.INI file while Font Monster is running. Otherwise, changes will not take effect.

UseGroupIcon=Yes

If you use "Program Manager" as your Windows shell, this setting defaults to "Yes", otherwise it defaults to "No". Setting to "Yes" will give font groups a custom icon contained in the FMHELPER.DLL file, setting to "No" gives font groups the default Font Monster icon. Norton Desktop v2.0, for example, can not use custom icons when creating font groups. If this bug is fixed in the future, or if your shell can accept custom icons, change this to "Yes".

PlaySounds=Yes

You can disable the multimedia sound effects by setting this to "No". The default is "Yes".

AssociateFonts=Yes

By default, Font Monster will re-associate ".TTF" and ".PFM" files if the FMONSTER.EXE file has been moved to a different directory, or if the association has been changed. Set this to "No" to disable this feature.

CatalogTitle=Font catalog

Used as the title which appears on every page of the font catalog. Change it to whatever you desire. Note that if you leave it blank, Font Monster will revert to "Font catalog" again.

SampleTitle=^n sample page

Used as the title on the Sample page. Leave it blank for no title, only just the font name. Use "^n" to insert the current font name in the title.

ChartTitle=^n character chart

Used as the title on the Chart page. Leave it blank for no title, only just the font name. Use "^n" to insert the current font name in the title.

SampleAlphabetText=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvzxyz|ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ|1234567890.:,;(&"*!?'$)

This is the sample alphabet text used by the Sample page function. Change it to whatever you desire. Use the "|" symbol to start a new line, you many have as many lines as you wish.

SampleAlphabetSize=18

This is the point size of the alphabet used by the Sample page function. Change it to whatever you desire.

SampleParagraphSize=12

This is the point size of the sample paragraph used by the Sample page function. Change it to whatever you desire. You can change the sample paragraph text by creating a file called FMONSTER.TXT and putting it in the same directory as FMONSTER.EXE.

SampleCustomTextSize_1=6

SampleCustomTextSize_2=8

SampleCustomTextSize_3=10

SampleCustomTextSize_4=12

SampleCustomTextSize_5=18

SampleCustomTextSize_6=24

SampleCustomTextSize_7=36

SampleCustomTextSize_8=72

SampleCustomTextSize_9=0

SampleCustomTextSize_10=0

These are the point sizes of the custom text used by the Sample page function. Enter "0" to skip printing the line. Note that the sizes do not have to be in ascending (or descending for that matter) order.